A regular accounting of the goings on with our family, garden, animals and travels. Gardening in USDA Zone 8b.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

What I'm Reading -- One Second After

I just finished a book that scared the hell out of me! One Second After by William Forstchen was quite an eye opener. The book is fiction, but its based on an event that could really happen, an EMP (electro magnetic pulse) weapon used on the United States by an unidentified enemy. No nuclear fall out, no bombs going off, just immediate silence. Everything stops. The story is set in North Carolina -- the main character is an ex-military officer and is now a history professor at a small local religious college. His skills and knowledge are crucial to how this story plays out.

The story follows how being thrown back 100 years without electricity, in one day everything that runs on electricity or electronics is fried. When you think about how much of our lives is dependent on these, it's mind boggling! The main character's daughter is a insulin dependent diabetic, and his father-in-law is in a local nursing home. You can only imagine what happens with both of them.

This book was excellent - a real warning about how unprepared we are for something like this. It's a stark warning, and I can promise it will be a rich topic of discussion in your family after you read it. Especially thought provoking was the lack of response from our so called "friends" in the world community. It's what you might expect.

Can you cook all of your meals on an open fire? Can you forage for food in the surrounding woods, trap wild game, boil all of your water (if you can find it), clean and butcher any meat you might catch. Who eats first? What is your obligation to your neighbors, friends, community? How do you rebuild your community? How do you handle violence, theft, murder, raids, strangers? Would you eye your own pets as food after everything else was gone?

I immediately began to have respect for any antiques that we may have. This community was lucky enough to have a few cars that were built before the advent of all those electronics. They run, at least until the gasoline goes bad.

From the description on Audible: In a small North Carolina town, one man struggles to save his family after America loses a war that will send it back to the Dark Ages.Already cited on the floor of Congress and discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a book all Americans should read, One Second After is the story of a war scenario that could become all too terrifyingly real. Based upon a real weapon - the Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) - which may already be in the hands of our enemies, it is a truly realistic look at the awesome power of a weapon that can destroy the entire United States, literally within one second.This book, set in a typical American town, is a dire warning of what might be our future and our end.